LONDON: Alex Ferguson will put his concerns about Cristiano Ronaldo’s future plans to one side when Manchester United kick-start their preparations for the coming campaign with a friendly against the manager’s old club Aberdeen this weekend.

United will visit the Scottish Premier League side just 52 days after the dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea in Moscow that completed a Champions League and Premier League double.

The euphoria that followed the club’s third European Cup triumph, however, has quickly evaporated in the wake of Real Madrid’s relentless pursuit of Ronaldo and the player’s failure to pledge his long-term loyalty to Old Trafford.

With Ferguson also having to contend with the prospect of losing his No.2 Carlos Queiroz – the man credited with exerting a major influence over United’s tactics and of acting as a father figure to Ronaldo – to Portugal, the post-Moscow honeymoon is well and truly over.

Against such a background Ferguson is entitled to feel relieved at the opportunity to get minds focused back on matters on the pitch and the prospect of a return to Pittodrie will ensure the Scot is surrounded by friends this weekend.

Ferguson returns to his former club 25 years after guiding an unfancied Aberdeen side to an unforgettable victory over Real Madrid in the final of the European Cup Winners Cup and the fixture has been arranged as an anniversary testimonial for the members of that team.

Indeed, it was Ferguson’s outstanding achievement in transforming the fortunes of the unfashionable North East Scotland club that persuaded Old Trafford officials to install him as United manager in November 1986.

But whilst the manager will undoubtedly revel in the nostalgia generated by the occasion, his thoughts will already be focused on his side’s twin title defence that will begin in earnest with the opening-day league clash with Newcastle United on Aug 16.

Ferguson will travel north without any of the players who appeared in the Euro 2008 Finals, including Ronaldo, who will be sidelined for six weeks anyway following surgery on an ankle.

England’s failure to qualify for the competition in Austria and Switzerland means the likes of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Owen Hargreaves, Wes Brown and Michael Carrick should all take their first steps back after the close season lay-off.

That in itself will provide Ferguson with a welcome boost and ensure that the core of his team go into the new season on the back of fresh from a summer of relative inactivity.

But the manager knows his main priority is to see off Madrid’s advances towards Ronaldo and convince last season’s 42-goal leading scorer his immediate future remains in the English Premier League.

– AFP

The hosts, celebrating the 25th anniversary of winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup under Sir Alex Ferguson, piled plenty of pressure on the Champions League holders, and were unfortunate to see a first-half goal from Darren Mackie ruled out for offside.

United’s class told in the latter stages of the first half and much of the first, however, and Carrick moved the visitors ahead by converting a penalty before Rooney powerfully headed home after the interval.

Rooney could have buried the hosts single-handedly inside 10 minutes, as he twice shot straight at goalkeeper Jamie Langfield and also had a powerful far-post volley blocked by a defender.

Although Aberdeen struggled to contain Rooney and the vibrant Ryan Giggs, they still probed menacingly during the opening exchanges, and Jeffrey De Visscher came close to opening the scoring before Mackie slid a finish past Ben Amos, only to see his effort chalked off by a linesman’s flag.

The sell-out crowd had to wait until just before half-time to see the first goal, when Rooney was brought down inside the area by Langfield after a superb through-ball from Carrick. Rooney opted to let his England cohort take the spot-kick and, just as he did in Moscow, Carrick sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to put United ahead.

Immediately after the interval United’s lead could have been doubled, but substitute Chris Eagles sidefooted Darren Fletcher’s teasing cross over the bar from close range. The hosts, for their part, could have drawn level shortly afterwards, but Amos made a superb fingertip save from Jamie Smith’s inswinging effort.

Rooney and Giggs continued to terrorise the Dons’ defence, however, and the latter almost headed home the former’s cross, only for substitute stopper Bertrand Bossu to brilliantly tip the ball onto the crossbar.

Twenty minutes from time, Rooney went one better by powerfully heading United’s second goal. Darren Fletcher took Carrick’s pass in his stride and curled in a teasing right-wing cross, which Rooney glanced emphatically into the far corner.

Danny Simpson had a long-range shot well held by Bossu and Eagles saw his chip deflected just past the post as United finished in the ascendancy, and held firm to post an impressive start to the new season preparations.

United: Amos (Woods, 73); Neville (Simpson, 46), Brown (J Evans, 61), Vidic (O’Shea, 46), Silvestre; Fletcher, Carrick, Scholes (Gibson, 61), Martin (Eagles, 46); Rooney (Hewson, 73), Giggs (Campbell, 61).

LONDON: Cristiano Ronaldo believes FIFA president Sepp Blatter was right to controversially describe him as being treated like a “modern-day slave” by current club Manchester United.

Ronaldo was responding to Blatter’s comments made earlier in the day, in which the head of world football insisted the player should be allowed to join Spanish giants Real Madrid if he wants to.

“I completely agree with the FIFA president,” said the player currently resting in Portugal after undergoing an ankle operation.

He added: “The president is correct, but I do not want to say more.”

Ronaldo currently earns £120,000 a week at Old Trafford, lives in a £4mil mansion, has ordered an £835,000 Bugatti Veyron and is close to agreeing a new £23mil Nike sponsorship deal!

Real Madrid are believed to be prepared to offer around 85mil euros for the 23-year-old and pay him 9mil euros in a five-year deal.

Ronaldo, a boyhood Real fan, has consistently been linked with a move to the Spanish capital since the end of last season after scoring an impressive 42 goals last term as United won both the Premier League and Champions League.

“There is no agreement with Real Madrid and I still don’t know where I will be playing next season,” Ronaldo said on Thursday, adding that he will be out for “10 to 12 weeks” to recover from his operation.

Wading into the protracted wrangle over the player’s future, Blatter said that the current practice of tying players to long contracts amounts to “modern slavery”.

And he urged Manchester United and Real Madrid “to sit together” if Ronaldo wants a move to the Spanish club. “The important thing is we should also protect the player,” Blatter told Sky News.

Blatter believes the issue raises questions about the way transfers and contracts are dealt with in the game.

“I think in football there’s too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere,” he continued.

United issued a swift rebuke to Blatter’s outburst, insisting that all their players were happy to sign contracts with the club and knew the consequences of entering into such an agreement.

UEFA communications director William Gaillard, who serves as special advisor to European football governing body president Michel Platini, was also unimpressed by Blatter’s outburst.

“It would be useful to remind people that slaves in all of the slavery systems never earned a wage,” said Gaillard.

In contrast, Gaillard fears the Bosman ruling, which allows for free transfers at the end of contracts, has given players the upper hand and contributed to spiralling wages.

“It is obvious that today players have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago, undoubtedly, and agents have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago.

“It seems that both clubs and players are trying to negotiate an exit before the player is free,” Gaillard said.

– AFP

KUALA LUMPUR: The two national men’s doubles pairs for the Beijing Olympics will have a break from their routine daily training sessions when they go for a two-day camp at the Genting Highlands on Wednesday.

Coach Rexy Mainaky has decided to give Choong Tan Fook-Lee Wan Wah and Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong a change of environment in a bid to inject fresh enthusiasm into their game ahead of the Olympics.

It is also aimed at easing the pressure on the pairs, who are considered as the medal prospects in the Olympics before they go into centralised training camp at the Juara Stadium in Bukit Kiara here.

Earlier this week, national singles coach Misbun Sidek took his charges, Lee Chong Wei and Wong Mew Choo, to Genting Highlands for similar reasons.

For veteran doubles shuttler Wan Wah, it will be a much welcomed break. The load in training has increased and Wan Wah felt the strain, asking to be excused from the afternoon session three days’ ago.

But the 34-year-old Wan Wah, whose participation in the Beijing Games next month was in doubt after he picked up a back injury at the Thomas Cup Finals in Jakarta in May, brushed aside fears of any worries of injury.

“I had been training too hard. I felt that my body needed to shut down and asked the coach for permission to skip a session,” he said.

“The intensity of our workouts has increased in the last one month. We usually go through 20 minutes of training and another 30 minutes of sparring. Now it’s 40 and 40.

Wan Wah and the 33-year-old Tan Fook will be playing in their third Olympics and they are the fourth seeds.

“It’s good that we will have the camp, especially for older players like us. We need more time to recover (from a strenuous session) and it’s good to go somewhere else for a change. There will still be physical sessions but the emphasise on badminton will be less,” said Wan Wah.

Unlike previous Olympics, the field doubles competitions in Beijing will involve only 16 pairs and Kien Keat-Boon Heong, who are the world number five, will not be seeded.

Also tagging along to the camp in Genting Highlands are the rest of the doubles pairs in the national team.

Malaysia have three medals to show thus far in the Olympics – all from badminton.

The men’s doubles pair of Razif-Jalani Sidek took bronze when the sport made its Olympic debut in Barcelona in 1992. At the next Games in Atlanta, the pair of Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock won the silver and Rashid Sidek took the men’s singles bronze.

KUALA LUMPUR: Adrian Ang brought joy to the Malaysian bowling camp on the final day of the Asian Championships at the Hong Kong Bowling City in Kowloon yesterday.

Adrian had ensured the battle for the men’s Masters gold medal would be an all-Malaysian affair. And he went on to become the first Malaysian to win the Masters event in the series, beating Zulmazran Zulkifli in the stepladder final.

Adrian Ang made history when he became the first Malaysian to win the Masters event of the Asian Championships at the Hong Kong Bowling City in Kowloon Friday.

The Penangite chalked up seven consecutive strikes in the first match of the final played on short oil for a 279 game while Zulmazran only managed a 196. Adrian lost the second match 179-217 but the 83-pin cushion was enough for him to claim the prestigious title.

It was the third gold medal for Malaysia in the championships after the successes of Shalin Zulkifli-Esther Cheah in the women’s doubles and the men’s team.

The three-gold haul is also Malaysia’s best result in the biennial championships since the inaugural event in 1970.

Adrian had defeated China’s Zhang Peng 214-166 in the first match of the top three stepladder Finals to set up the showdown for gold against top seed Zulmazran.

He was the leader going into the second block of eight games and finished in second place on 3,707 behind Zulmazran, who had a total of 3,765. Zhang Peng finished on 3,695.

Adrian, who will be 20 on Wednesday, succeeded in claiming the birthday present he was aiming for. He featured in the two previous championships and the victory yesterday brought him his first individual gold medal in the series.

“I have played against Zulmazran in the stepladder Finals many times. The stake was higher this time. I’m glad I got a head start with a high game and could take it easy in the second game,” he said.

“To win the Masters gold is something I will treasure for a long time. It is a great present for my birthday next week,” said Adrian.

The third Malaysian in the men’s Masters Finals, Alex Liew, finished 10th on 3,541.

None of the four Malaysian women advanced to the stepladder Finals. Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman was the best performer in eighth on 3,481. Shalin and Wendy Chai finished 10th and 13th respectively while Esther was last in the field of 16 bowlers.

RESULTS

MEN

After 16 games: 1. Zulmazran Zulkifli (Mas) 3765, 2. Adrian Ang (Mas) 3707, 3. Zhang Peng (Chn) 3695, 4. Hussain Al-Suwaidi (Uae) 3666, 5. Choi Ki-bong (Kor) 3597, 6. Chester King (Phi) 3581, 7. Raoul Miranda (Phi) 3576, 8. Kim Tae-young (Kor) 3562, 9. Masaru Ito (Jpn) 3556, 10. Alex Liew (Mas) 3541, 11. Saeed Al-Hajri (Qat) 3514, 12. Shaun Ng (Sin) 3516, 13. Michael Tsang (Hkg) 3484, 14. Mubarak al-Muraikhi (Qat) 3460, 15. Wu Siu Hong (Hkg) 3459, 16. Mohd Alrajibah (Kuw) 3237.

First stepladder: Adrian bt Zhang Peng (Chn) 214-166.

Final stepladder: Adrian bt Zulmazran 458-413 (279-196; 179-217).

WOMEN

After 16 games: 1. Choi Jin-a (Kor) 3751, 2. Gye Min-young (Kor) 3727, 3. Jeon Eun-hee (Kor) 3653, 4. Hwang Sun-ok (Kor) 3592, 5. Kim Yeau-jin (Kor) 3575, 6. Jazreel Tan (Sin) 3533, 7. Yang Suling (Chn) 3499, 8. Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman (Mas) 3481, 9. Gang Hye-eun (Kor) 3438, 10. Shalin Zulkifli (Mas) 3428, 11. Krizzah Tabora (Phi) 3418, 12. Haruka Matsuda (Jpn) 3344, 13. Wendy Chai (Mas) 3292, 14. Jasmine Yeong-Nathan 3290, 15. Huang Chiung-yao (Tpe) 3280, 16. Esther Cheah (Mas) 3254.

First stepladder: Min-young bt Eun-hee 203-190.

Final stepladder: Jin-a bt Min-young 472-445 (236-187 and 236-258).
]]> http://marlaries88.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/masters-crown-gives-malaysia-best-ever-title-haul-in-asian-meet/feed/ 0 marlaries88 http://marlaries88.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/nicol-to-be-a-penang-datuk/ http://marlaries88.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/nicol-to-be-a-penang-datuk/#comments Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:05:44 +0000 marlaries88 http://marlaries88.wordpress.com/?p=3 ]]> GEORGE TOWN: Crowned the youngest world woman’s squash champion in 2005, Nicol Ann David will be now be the youngest person in Penang to be conferred a Datukship.

Nicol, 25, is among 497 people who will be conferred state awards in conjunction with Yang di-Pertua Negri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas’ 70th birthday celebrations today.

The state’s first Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Haji Mohamad heads the list as the sole recipient of the Darjah Utama Pangkuan Negeri (DUPN) which carries the title Datuk Seri Utama, while Opposition Leader Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail will receive the Darjah Panglima Pangkuan Negeri (DPPN) which carries the title Datuk Seri.

Seven people will receive the Darjah Gemilang Pangkuan Negeri (DGPN) which also carries the title Datuk Seri.

All smiles: File photo showing Nicol waving to the crowd after beating Jenny Duncalf at the Dunlop British Open Squash tournament final in Liverpool in May. — AFP

They are ACA director-general Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan; Datuk Ewe Tiong Hor; Halal Industry Development Corp chief executive officer Datuk Jamil Bidin; Datuk Md Isahak Md Yusuf; Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Ismail Merican; Datuk Nazir Ariff and Tan King Tai @ Tan Khoon Hai.

Second Infantry Division commander Mej-Jen Datuk Raja Mohamed Affandi Raja Mohamed Noor, whose 32-year army career included a one-year stint as a United Nations observer in Mozambique, will be the sole recipient of the Darjah Yang Mulia Pangkuan Negeri (DMPN) which carries the title of Datuk.

Nicol is among 27 recipients of the Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (DSPN).

The others include retired MP and assemblyman Chian Heng Kai @ Chin Soo Ha, Universiti Malaya literature expert Prof Dr Ghulam Sarwar Yousof, Unesco Asia-Pacific Heritage Conservation Award 2006 recipient Jong East Full, Penang Municipal Council secretary Ooi Chin Loo, who served the council for 31 years and Toray Industries Inc, Japan CEO and president Sadayuki Sakakibara.

There are 60 recipients of the Darjah Johan Negeri (DJN).

Five will receive the Bintang Cemerlang Negeri (BCN) and 110 the Pingat Kelakuan Terpuji (PKT) including Penang News Vendors and Booksellers Association founder A. Vellasamy.

A total 140 people will receive the Pingat Jasa Kebaktian (PJK). There are 138 Pingat Jasa Masyarakat (PJM) recipients and seven Pingat Bakti Setia (PBS) awardees.